LONDON: Balaclavas and e-bikes have become the armor of teenage boys zooming around London streets snatching mobile phones from unsuspecting commuters and tourists.&nbsp;As AFP joined a patrol on a sunny Friday night, police officer Hayden O&#39;Connor spotted potential victims everywhere -- people holding out phones to follow directions or listening to music.&nbsp;&quot;You see your bus is in 20 minutes, you get your phone out, start scrolling Instagram, and before you know it there&#39;s a whizzy whirl of an e-bike coming towards you and your phone is gone,&quot; he said.&nbsp;O&#39;Connor is part of the interceptor teams now driving around London in unmarked vehicles.&nbsp;They follow reports of stolen phones but the chances of getting one back are &quot;really, really slim&quot;, his colleague, police officer Hayley Carr, conceded.&nbsp;London&#39;s Metropolitan Police force has invested heavily in clamping down on the phenomenon, which has seen the city dubbed Europe&#39;s phone theft capital.&nbsp;Tackling phone theft has been made a priority and extensive operations using drones, live facial recognition and interceptor teams have led to some success.&nbsp;Phone thefts fell by 12.3 percent from 81,365 in 2024 to 71,391 in 2025, according to Met figures.&nbsp;There were 13,000 fewer mobile phone thefts over the past financial year ending on March 31.&nbsp;Aluminium foil wrapWhat seems like a petty street crime has far-reaching tentacles, with phones stolen in London often exported, reactivated and resold overseas within days.&nbsp;One of the most high-profile victims in recent months was Prime Minister Keir Starmer&#39;s former top political aide, Morgan McSweeney, who had his phone snatched in October.&nbsp;Last year, the Met dismantled one international gang suspected of smuggling some 40,000 stolen phones from the UK to China.&nbsp;&quot;In just one week, we cut e-bike enabled crime, which is linked to phone theft, by nearly 40 percent,&quot; said Detective Superintendent Gareth Gilbert.&nbsp;&quot;Our message is simple: if you commit these crimes, we will catch you.&quot;&nbsp;AFP joined a Friday night patrol around London Bridge, as office workers enjoyed a pint and throngs of tourists explored the popular Borough Market.&nbsp;The police control center soon called with a stolen phone having been tracked to Deptford.&nbsp;The unmarked car&#39;s blue lights flashed on, and O&#39;Connor hit the accelerator.&nbsp;The team swerved through London&#39;s snarled evening traffic, but the phone&#39;s tracking signal was lost.&nbsp;Criminals wrap the precious booty in aluminium foil, the officers said, blocking the signal.&nbsp;Organized crimeBeneath the balaclavas, the phone-grabbing bikers are usually just teenagers.&nbsp;&quot;Normally they&#39;re 16, 18,&quot; said O&#39;Connor. On one recent patrol, he even caught a pair of 13-year-old boys.&nbsp;&quot;They are young teenage boys, and they are recruited by larger organized crime groups,&quot; Gilbert told AFP.&nbsp;Even if the thieves think it&#39;s just one &quot;small, minor, individual isolated crime ... it works into a bigger network&quot;, he said.&nbsp;&quot;That leads upstream into organized crime groups and then actually worldwide.&quot;&nbsp;The thieves usually make between &pound;100 and &pound;200 ($135 to $270) per phone. &quot;That for a 13-year-old is a huge amount of money,&quot; said Gilbert.&nbsp;But it can lead to links to gangs and wider criminality.&nbsp;Police said later that six people were arrested around midnight on that Friday night patrol.&nbsp;Police motorbikes have more success as the unmarked cars are in an impossible race against e-bikes, even if they run red lights.&nbsp;Met commissioner Mark Rowley has urged manufacturers to help bust the thefts, setting a June 1 deadline to &quot;design out crime&quot; by making stolen phones worthless.&nbsp;Otherwise, he will ask for the government to bring in legislation.&nbsp;The best advice? Report a stolen phone swiftly and use tracking services like Find My iPhone. Don&#39;t just report the theft later.&nbsp;&quot;Unfortunately, it doesn&#39;t leave us in a position to do anything about it,&quot; said O&#39;Connor.

Europe

London police are intensifying operations against soaring mobile phone thefts by teenage e-bike snatchers linked to organized crime, using drones and interceptor teams, while urging manufacturers to make stolen phones worthless.
 

Articles tagged with "e-bikes"

On patrol with London police battling rampant phone theft

On patrol with London police battling rampant phone theft